The Sánchez Archives EIGHTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME Year B

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Honeymooning With God

Hosea 2:16-17, 21-22
2 Corinthians 3:1-6
Mark 2:18-22

Honeymoon is a rather strange term that has traditionally described the initial period of married life, the special trip that the newlyweds take to celebrate their union and/or the first months of a newly elected president’s term in office when both the chief executive and Congress are on their best and most cordial behavior. Comprised of the nouns honey and moon, the original idea behind this composite word was that the first month (moon) of marriage was the sweetest (honey), but just as when the moon is full and bright, it then begins to wane, so also does the initial affection of a married couple.

Ideally, however, most married people strive to sustain the first fervor of their honeymoon love as their relationship with one another grows, changes and develops. Most honeymooners are eagerly attentive to one another, placing the needs and desires of the other above their own. No request is too great or too difficult to fulfill; no sacrifice is too costly.

Honeymoons are usually a time of continuing discovery as each partner in the new liaison of marriage begins to know more fully and appreciate more deeply the other. Honeymoons are also a time of planning and hoping together for a future spent in the company of the one so loved. Trousseaus, wedding gifts and bridal registries notwithstanding, many honeymooners begin life together with a minimum of worldly possessions. Nevertheless, material things seem unimportant and unnecessary because the bride and groom have chosen to find their riches and treasure in the love of one another. More than simply eros , or the love of human affection and sexuality, authentic spousal or honeymoon love is also the love of hesed , or the loving-kindness of enduring covenant love and the love of agape , i.e., a love that loves without demanding love in return, a love that forgives, serves, endures, and bears all, for the sake of the other.

Those who have shared some of the greatest marriages of all times seem to have found the secret for perpetuating their honeymoon quality and character of their love. When he described the love that he and his wife, Paula, had for one another, philosopher and author Martin Buber said, “Experiencing the other in his/her otherness is the essence of love. The turning of the lover to the beloved in his/her otherness means seeing the other as present for all time.” Paula Winkler was a Catholic and Martin Buber was a Jew, but theirs was a decisive, vital union in which the “I” and the “Thou” were one. Aware of the sublime nature of marital oneness and the sheer delight of the newness of honeymoon love, the scriptural authors made frequent allusions to such love in describing the relationship to which God calls every believer. Speaking for God in today’s first reading, the prophet Hosea encouraged his contemporaries to put an end to their sinful infidelities and return God’s faithful spousal love. In a word, the prophet was inviting his readers to remember and to reprise their honeymoon relationship with God.

Initially, it may seem surprising and perhaps a little shocking to consider religion and/or spirituality in terms of a honeymoon. After all, it is customary and even comfortable to think of God as Creator and as the Omnipotent and Omnipresent Master of the universe. Titles such as Great Provider, Mighty Lord, and Sovereign Savior roll easily off the tongue. Moreover, they seem to retain and respect the safe and sacrosanct distance that would keep God near but not intimate. Today, however, both Hosea in the first reading and Jesus in the gospel would have us rethink our relationships with God and be renewed in the spousal, honeymoon intimacy to which we have been called and for which we have been created. This is a love that delights in the presence of the other and lives to please, serve and complement the other in every conceivable way.

The love that Hosea promised and envisioned became incarnate in Jesus; he presented himself as the bridegroom through whom the honeymoon love and marital feasting between God and humankind was realized. However , Jesus also indicated that participation in the love relationship he had come to establish was not without its challenges. Honeymooning with God would require a radically new way of thinking and being such that one would no longer measure oneself by the law, by one’s merits or even by one’s ascetic practices (fasting). Rather, honeymooning with God is made possible only by a transformation by grace and by adhering in love to the person and teachings of Jesus. The old ways, like the old cloak and the old wineskins, are no longer viable. Today, as God’s spousal promises are reiterated in our hearing, we are thereby invited to become renewed in the fervor of our honeymoon relationship. In right and in justice, in love, mercy and fidelity, we shall know and be known by God.

HOSEA 2:16-17

In an effort to make their wedding ceremonies more personal and memorable, many couples choose to depart from the traditional rite and compose their own marital vows. While the promises of love and pledges of fidelity are usually quite similar, the style and delivery can be as varied and unique as the couples themselves. In this excerpted text, the eighth century B.C.E. prophet Hosea invites the gathered assembly to reflect upon a very special set of wedding vows, viz., those spoken by God to the people of the northern kingdom of Israel.

Hosea prophesied with a pathos that sprung from his own experience with his adulterous wife. For reasons that only love and obedience to God (Hosea 1:2) can explain, Hosea married a known prostitute named Gomer. After the birth of their first child, she reverted to her former way of life. Despite her repeated infidelities and the doubt surrounding the paternity of their second and third children, Hosea loved Gomer and refused to end their relationship. Whether his relentless love for the unfaithful Gomer enabled him to understand and explain God’s unstinting love for the often idolatrous Israel or whether God’s love and fidelity inspired his own is a question that remains unanswered. Nevertheless the prophet’s own experience became the vehicle for his poignant prophetic message.

As Bruce C. Birch (Hosea, Joel and Amos, Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY: 1997) has suggested, Hosea offers us a portrait of a dysfunctional family as a means of understanding the dysfunctional relationship between God and Israel. The prophet’s images and experiences have a power to shake us and confront us with depths of brokenness that other metaphors might not have. We can identify with the pain and loss of a broken marriage vow. We can sympathize with the shame that Hosea bore. Because he has been so frank in expressing his thoughts and feelings, we have a deeper appreciation of the seriousness of covenantal infidelity and the depths of divine love.

Ministering as prophet in the years prior to the conquest of Israel by Assyria (ca. 745-722 B.C.E.), Hosea labored to warn his people of their impending ruin. He urged the unfaithful to turn from their wicked ways and return to the Lord who would forgive and receive them in a renewed bond of love. Hosea recalled for his contemporaries of the desert experiences at Sinai wherein they had first honeymooned with the God who had created them, redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and formed a covenant of love with them. He encouraged them to invoke once again the experience of the desert (vv. 16-17) in order to hear the divine promises that would restore them to their former holiness (vv. 21-22).

Speaking for God as a loving groom would speak to his beloved wife, Hosea promised Israel a dowry or “engagement gifts” comprised of right and justice (sedeq and mishpat, qualities which promote just and upright and human relations), as well as love, mercy and fidelity (hesed, rahamim and emunah, qualities which forge authentic covenantal love).

As a result of God’s wedding vows and promised dowry, Israel would “know the Lord” (v. 22) not only intellectually but experientially. A key concept in Hosea’s theology, “knowing God” or “knowledge of God” signifies a relationship with God whereby each partner in the union fully knows the other and is fully known by the other. In the scriptures, the verb “to know” is also used to describe the sexual union between spouses. How daring of Hosea to repeatedly invoke this term in reference to the relationship between God and humankind. Had he been any less daring, would we truly appreciate the profundity of God’s love, the perpetuity of God’s spousal promises and the privilege of covenantal intimacy?

2 CORINTHIANS 3:1-6

Anyone who has ever compiled material for a resumé or dossier knows the importance of letters of recommendation. These letters provide a personal assessment of a prospective candidate’s character, performance and abilities. In the ancient world, letters or notes of recommendation were often used to introduce or to commend someone to a new employer or community. Archaeologists have unearthed many such letters.

Such letters were also used among the early Christians. Romans 16 is comprised of one such letter written by Paul to commend Phoebe, who was a deaconess in the church at Cenchrae, to the church at Rome. From what we can deduce from today’s text from 2 Corinthians, Paul was being called upon to produce letters of recommendation on his own behalf. Recall the fact that some of the members of the Corinthian community were critical of Paul’s claim to be an apostle and of the gospel that he preached.

Rather than produce letters written by a third party, Paul proclaims that his readers, i.e., the converts he had made for Christ in Corinth, were his “living letters” of recommendation. Their faith and their exemplary and transformed lives spoke volumes about the authenticity of the gospel that had been preached to them and about the charisms and capabilities of the one who had preached it. In her reflections on this text, Linda McKinnish Bridges (The Abingdon Preaching Annual, 2000 Edition, Abingdon Press, Nashville, KY: 1999) suggests that Paul’s living letters of recommendation might have said something like the following: “Missionary Paul really helped me to understand the value of sexual morality” (see 2 Corinthians 5:1-5). Another member might have testified, “Paul gave me wise counsel regarding a pending lawsuit (1 Corinthians 6:1-11). Still another, could have said, “Our community was conflicted about eating food sacrificed to idols and Paul helped us to deal with it (1 Corinthians 8:1-13). Many of the “living letters” could have spoken about Paul’s advice on their various gifts and how they should be used for the well-being of the community (1 Corinthians 12).

Shifting metaphors (v. 3), the great apostle then reminded the Corinthians that they were a letter that had been authored by Christ through the power of the Spirit and delivered by Paul. Paul affirmed the fact that the good work he had accomplished in Corinth was indeed the work of Christ and the power that enabled him to do it was the very Spirit of God. Unlike the false teachers who promoted themselves, Paul always gave credit for his successes to God. In this he remains an exemplary minister of the Lord whose value is not measured in the thickness of his resumé or in the number of digits in his salary. The truest measure of Paul’s success and his greatest recommendations are attested in the hearts and lives that he touched, transformed and converted to Christ. Today, as Paul’s words continue to call us to conversion and to Christ, would he look upon and value each of us as a living letter of recommendation?

MARK 2:18-22

According to Jewish custom, newly married couples did not go away for a honeymoon; they remained at home and hosted a wedding feast that continued for a week or even longer. At their homemade and homebased honeymoon, they shared with family, friends and neighbors the joys and hopes of their new life together. William Barclay (“The Gospel of Mark”, The Daily Study Bible, The Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh: 1975) tells us that in a hard wrought life the wedding week was usually the happiest in the couple’s life. During that week, the closest friends of the bride and groom were called “children of the bride chamber.” By rabbinic ruling, all in attendance on the bridegroom were relieved of all religious observances that would lessen the joy; this, of course, included fasting.

Given the joy and celebratory atmosphere associated with the Jewish wedding feast, this occasion became an apt metaphor for describing the messianic age of salvation. Drawing upon that familiar metaphor, Jesus, in today’s gospel, compares himself to the bridegroom and host of the ultimate wedding feast. His disciples represent the “children of the bridechamber;” therefore, fasting is precluded as long as the groom remains with them.

By law, fasting was required only one day a year on Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29; 23:17; Numbers 29:7), however the Pharisees went beyond the law and fasted two days each week. Unfortunately, for many, the practice had deteriorated into mere ostentation (Matthew 6:16). While he was with them, Jesus’ disciples were not to fast; however, the time would come when they would do so. Most scholars agree that the ominous reference to the bridegroom being taken away (vb. 20) is probably a post-resurrection reference to Jesus’ death on the cross which was later inserted into the gospel by the Marcan community.

By comparing the behaviors of the disciples of John and the Pharisees, who fasted, with those of Jesus’ disciples, who rejoiced and celebrated, Mark underscored the radical newness of Jesus’ message and way of life. Through his words and works, Jesus redefined salvation as God’s gratuitous gift to sinners rather than the reward of the law abiding and the righteous. Through his ministry to sinners and his outreach to the poor, the outcast, the blind, the lame, etc. Jesus redefined the requisites for membership in the kingdom or reign of God.

In order to further illustrate the radically new character of the age of salvation that he was ushering in, Jesus offered two images that were quite familiar to his contemporaries. An old and well-worn garment cannot be repaired with a patch of new cloth; nor can new wine be poured into old wineskins. Those who attempt to do so will be left with a ruined garment and spilled wine. So also with the reign of God as established by Jesus; it must be welcomed with a new spirit and an open heart, unclouded by preconceptions, unbiased by traditions and willing to welcome whatever shocks and surprises God may have in store. As Wilfrid Harrington (Mark, Michael Glazier, Inc., Wilmington, DE: 1984) has explained, the new way of Jesus is not a piece added to the old nor a new element poured into the old; it is rather a vivifying force which transforms the abiding teachings of the old revelation. In the fourth gospel, the Johannine Jesus made a similar point at the wedding feast at Cana. By changing the water for the ritual ablutions into a choice and superior wine, Jesus signaled a new era and a new means of becoming purified, not by water but through the words and works of Jesus.

As we await the return of the bridegroom and our sharing in the everlasting wedding banquet of God’s reign, we are to live in a spirit of eager anticipation, fasting when appropriate, feasting when appropriate, ever mindful of the honeymoon fervor that should characterize our relationship with God.

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